1. What is the fruit of the 2. Immediately Jesus sent His earth? disciples out to heal the. a. People, souls. sick, cleanse the lepers,

Transcription

1 Spread The Fire Scripture To Study: Matthew 4:18-22, 9:36-38, 10:1-8, 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18; Luke 4:18 19, 15:4-32; Acts 1:1-14, 2:1-21, 37-41, 3:1-26, 4:1-4, 8:1-8, 9:1-15; James 5:7 Central Truth: The purpose of the Holy Ghost is to empower us to be a witness. Memory Verse: Acts 1 :8, "But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses. I. Follow me, I will make you fishers A. When Jesus saw the of men. multitudes scattered as sheep without a shepherd (lost), He A. Fishing for men is the heartbeat was moved with compassion. of Jesus. B. God is not angry at the lost. B. If we are truly following Jesus His heart is full of mercy, so we will become concerned much mercy that He gave His about the souls of men. only Son..,,..._._... ~ ~ ::, 0 ' II. C. The heart of Jesus was to train C. Christ died for the ungodly. His disciples to do what He did and to bring in the harvest. D. The Bible says Jesus is waiting for the precious fruit of the 1. Jesus said that the harvest earth. is great, but the laborers are few. 1. What is the fruit of the 2. Immediately Jesus sent His earth? disciples out to heal the a. People, souls. sick, cleanse the lepers, b. Lost people, sinners. raise the dead, and bring in 2. NoticethatJesuscalledthe the harvest. lost precious. 3. We need to see the lost the The precious fruit of the earth. same way Jesus does ifwe (James 5:7) want to win the lost. 127

2 Super Church LESSON 12 Ill. What is this power for? A. In Mark chapter 16, Jesus told the disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. B. Then inactst(rightaftermark 16), He told the disciples to wait in the city of Jerusalem. C. What were they waiting for? Holy Ghost power. D. One reason for the Holy Ghost is to empower us to be witnesses. E. Apostle Peter is changed. 1. Before Pentecost Peter denied the Lord 3 times. 2. After Pentecost Peter stood and preached to thousands. 3. The result: 3,000 people were saved. 4. Peter preached again in Acts 3, and 5,000 were saved. F. We see this pattern happening throughout the book of Acts. (Acts 2:1-41, 3:1-4, 8:1-8, 9: 1-15) 1. Holy Ghost power is manifested through tongues, drunkenness, healings, deliverance, etc. 2. Someone preached the gospel. 3. People were saved, lots of people. 128

3 Weasel Gets Saved Puppets Needed: Howard, Bully, Sally, Weasel Puppet Skit: Say, Bully. I have never seen anyone do some of the things you were doing on Sunday. What was that? (Mumbling.) Well, you know, it was just God moving on my Heart, Howard. What did you say, Bully? It was, you know, God moving on my heart It sore was good to see you get involved in this revival. Yeah, yeah. Just don't tell anybody else what you saw me do. Don't be worrying about that, Bully. We won't make a big deal about it, but you got to share it with others or you're gonna go stale. What! What do you mean by going stale: Tm not bread or nothing like that. No, no, Bully.. It is like water that sits still and doesn't move. If that water never moves it gets stale and it's bad. No one can drink it and it's useless. And that's what's gonna happen to you, man, if you don't go share what is going. on the inside of you with others. You mean, I have to go share with other people what I did on Sunday? No. Bully. Not how you danced and stuff, but just how God is moving in your heart and changing you. So, I just share what God is doing inside of me? How I feel like I, I, love him a little bit more? 131

4 Yes, Bully. But you don't have to tell them everything at once. You can tell lhemhowgodhastumedyouintoabetterbullythanbefore. (Weasel enters.) Hey, Bully. I heard that you did some of that weird stuff on Sunday at church like we talked about Is that right, man? Yeah, Weasel, I did! Something wrong wilh that? Well, no. But I thought you said everybody else was being tricked. I guess you got tricked too, huh? listen closely, Weasel. 'Cause I am only gonna tell you lhis once. I was wrong. There's a first time for everything. But you don't have to tell anybody about that part. Well, okay. I won't, Bully. I won't But, I wasn't tricked. God was moving in my heart and it was cool. So, you're saying to me, that you're one of those crazy people now? Hey, I ain't crazy, Weasel. And it would do you some good to let God move in your heart too. Why should I do that? Weasel, God can help us in so many ways. For me I was lonely and didn't have any friends at my new school. But God has filled me wilhjoy.and I have several new Christian friends that I can fellowship with at school. Ya know, Weasel, it would be. smart if you got off of your duff, and got with the program here. Ya know, I went up for prayer the other day and asked for prayer for my hand to be healed. And what to you know, God healed my hand! Like I was saying you can go to heaven, but you can also have a personal relationship with Jesus right now. Yeah, Weasel. You can talk to God and fellowship wilh Jesus just like we are with you right now. That's right, Weasel. Jesus died for you and rose again from the dead so you conld have the chance lo ask Him into your heart, man. But once you do that, then God becomes your Father. Like your Daddy. You become IDs kid and you also get lo go to church and get cool prizes if you're good. 132

5 . So, Weasel. Do you want to give your life to Jesus? BuHy: It is easy all you have to do is believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. And then you get to go to church and maybe get the chance to do what I did on Sunday. I don't know about tht church stuff, Bully. Weasel, don't you weasel out of lhis, Why wouldn't you want Jesus to become your. Lotd? Ah, ah, I don't know.. See, you don't have an excuse not to. So just do it. Give God a chance. Okay, Bully. How do I do this? Just repeat this prayer after me. Okay. God... God... I ask you to come into my heart, I'm sorry for all of my sins. I believe in Jesus, that you raised Him from the dead and I confess Him as Lord over my life. I also thank you for letting me become a part of your family. In Jesus name. Amen. What? What did you say man? Just say you believe in Jesus.. That's good enough. Okay, I believe in Jesus. There you're saved, Congratulations. Man, thanks for leading me to God, Bully. I appreciate it. You're welcome, Weasel. I'll see you in church. (Enter Heart.) Heart: That was good for your first time witnessing, Bully. I'm very proud of you for.being obedient to God. Yeah, thanks Heart for all your help. I couldn't of done it without ya. 133

6 Precious Fruit Scripture Reference: James 5:7 Materials Needed: Preparation: Central Truth: 2 bananas, 2 apples, 2 clusters of grapes & a pair of large glasses. The day before you are.going to teach this lesson take 1 banana, l apple and 1 cluster of grapes and mash them up a little. You want them to be mushed up and ugly and even a little smelly. The Lord sees the lost as the precious fruit of the earth. Object Lesson: (Take the nasty fruit and lay it on a table in front of the children: Hide the good fruit and the large glasses in a close cubbyhole or pulpit shelf.) Boys and girls, last week we talked about God preparing our hearts to go and. reach the. lost. But it is important that we see the lost the way God does. Did you know that He sees them as precious. The bum who is an alcoholic and lives on the street. He is kind of smelly when you walk by him and hasn't had a bath for a few days. The punk kid who does what he wants to, when he wants to, and doesn't care who he hurts. The kid down at the end of the block lies, cheats, and steals all of the time. These are the precious fruit of the earth. This is why Jesus gave His life. But you know, sometimes we don't see things the way that God does. We see the old man who lives on the street like this old smelly banana. ( Put on your glasses and bring out the nice banana.) But.the Lord sees him like this. precious fruit. (Repeat using the glasses and pulling out the fruit for each example.) We see a punk kid who doesn't care about anyone but himself as this bunch of mashed grapes, but the Lord sees him as precious fruit. We see the kid down at the end of the block like this yucky apple, the Lord sees him as precious fruit. Weneedtoseethelostasprecious, the way the Lord does. 134

7 Super Church LESSON 12 You Shall Be Witnesses Scripture Reference: Mark 16:14-20;Acts 1 &2. Bible Story: What were the disciples waiting for? In Acts l :8 Jesus says, ~.But ye shall receive The words the Lordjust spoke after His power after. thatthe Holy Ghost is come upon Resurrection and before His ascension are you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in. important words. We know that He was Jerusalem,andinallJudeaandinSamaria,and speaking directly to the church. You could say unto the uttermost part of the earth." His words were laying lhe foundation for lhe church of Jesus Christ. Much of whatjesus said in His three years on the earth was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Even after the resurrection the disciples still didn't know anything about the church of Jesus Christ.. They thought He was going to kick out lhe Romans and set up His kingdom right then. (Acts 1:6) Jesus had two primary themes in His sermons at that time: #1 In Mark chapter 16 - Jesus told the disciples to go into all the world and preach. the gospel to every creature. This is what the church is all about. "ReceivingGod'spowerand then preaching the gospel to the world." That's exactly what happened in Acts Chapter 2. Peter was filled with the Holy Ghost and then he stood up and preached to thousands even while people were mocking him. Three lhousand people were saved in one day. God's power is. not to keep for selfish reasons. Holy Ghost power is to empower us to preach the gospel so others can be saved. Let'snotjust "Catch The Fire" but "Spread The F ue.. " #2 In Acts chapter l (which followed immediately after Mark 16)-Jesus told His disciples tc wait in the city of Jerusalem. He had just got done telling them to go and now He's telling them to wait. I think Peter was probably halfway down the street. Do you have friends or neighborslhat don't know Jesus? Ask the Father to give you power and boldness to witness to your friends, and let.. your light shine. In other words share your testimony with them and tell them about Jesus. 137